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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

"Altered Zones" @ The New Museum (10.22.2011)

We attended Altered Zones on Saturday October 22nd, 2011. As a collaboration between Pitchfork and the New Museum, a diverse group of bands and DJs were brought together in the same venue in a festival-like atmosphere. Altered Zones occupied 3 floors at the museum: the 7th floor Sky Room, the downstairs Theater, and the lobby, home to the DJs and all of the drinking throughout the night. Brooklyn Brewery even provided free beer for the evening! Visuals were designed for each performer with contributions being made by performers such as Liz Harris (Grouper) and Aaron Warren and Bjorn Copeland (of Black Dice). Each performer's set lasted approximately 45 minutes, though at times the schedule became backed up. Unfortunately this caused us to miss all but half a song by Prince Rama in order to make it down to Eric Copeland in time. Regardless, we had a blast roaming the museum all night (from 7:30 pm to 2:00 am to be exact), checking out different bands and DJs. We are pleased to bring you recordings of Teengirl Fantasy, Eric Copeland, and Atlas Sound from the show.

The general atmosphere of Altered Zones was very free and chilled, yet also stunning in its own way. The freedom to explore the designated areas of the museum and see who you wanted to see perform was refreshing. Many chose to just stay seated in the lobby to drink, relax, and listen to the DJs. There was even an entire balcony at our disposal outside of the Sky Room that gave us an incredible view of the city. Additionally, the visuals were often projected on multiple walls during the performances, creating another aesthetic for the event. As for the recordings, each set was recorded from the same location: the center of the first step in the Theater. Thanks to a prime location and a respectful audience, little to no crowd noise is captured during the songs in the recordings.

Teengirl Fantasy

We last saw Teengirl Fantasy opening for Panda Bear at Governor's Island. Though they were great at that show, seeing them in a more intimate (not too mention indoor) venue this time around was a necessity. Teengirl was not to be missed. The stunning visuals added an element to their live performance that paired perfectly with their energetic sound. The set was divided based on apparent movements and known songs. The titles which we were unsure of have their track number in their place. Enjoy!

As anyone who has read our past blogs knows, we love Black Dice. Eric Copeland's solo material is no different. He has released an abundance of material in the format of LPs, EPs, and 7"s over the past few years. His music is an excellent partner to Black Dice's material. This was our first time seeing Eric live and he played an incredible set that left those there to see him awed and those who were not holding their ears. His set was not nearly as bassy compared to Black Dice but it was just as intense with its blaring, processed sounds...in a good way!

Fellow Black Dice members Aaron Warren and Bjorn Copeland (Eric's brother) provided the visuals for Eric's performance. The visuals ranged from underwater lesbian porn to vibrant splashes of colors and swirls. Though the artwork for Eric's releases are always black and white, having so much popping color in the visuals gave the songs a new vibe. Like Teengirl Fantasy's set, Eric Copeland's set is divided based on apparent movements and any recognized songs. The titles which we were unsure of have the song's track number in its place.

* Zed is accidently listed as a numbered title and FKD is incorrectly labeled as Tree Aliens on the download link. Our apologies!*

Atlas Sound

Atlas Sound (Bradford Cox of Deerhunter) was added to the lineup for Altered Zones just a few days prior to the event. Every time we've tried to see him in New York over the past few years we've had conflicting obligations. Nevertheless we were beyond psyched at the opportunity to get to see him at the New Museum. Though we were completely exhausted from a long night of music, Bradford made his 1:00am set time anything but sleep-worthy. He not only provided us with incredible music consisting of new and previously released songs, but he had the 70 or so of us hysterically laughing.

If there was something we knew about Bradford's live performances based on previous bootlegs was that his sets usually follow the notion 'expect the unexpected'. He is very loose on stage and has an 'anything goes' attitude which is entertaining to witness. The second [banter] track in particular is hysterical. Bradford goes on about taking song requests, European cheese platters, and all of the avant-garde "things" he was surrounded by.

For this performance it was just him, his acoustic guitar, and his pedalboard with a multitude of effect pedals. Additionally, Bradford sat down at a partial drum set left over on stage from the previous bands during a few of the songs. Several of the songs were played by audience request. The first 3 tracks are new songs with unofficial titles at the moment. They may very well appear on Parallax, the new Atlas Sound album to be released this November. For now, they have been given temporary titles that have appeared on other bootlegs.

2 comments:

Hey there, guys! I have no words to say how grateful I am for your recordings of Eric and Black Dice. To return the favor I want to share a bootleg of rawo nam, a band I play in. It features visuals too, and in terms of sound is something you are quite up to, as I'm assuming:

What an interesting blog, introduced by a thought-provoking photo. The unusual wall painting of the dwellings is also a strangely modern interpretation. Something like this hieroglyphic view of a park by Swiss painter Paul Klee, http://EN.WahooArt.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-8LT475. The image can be seen at wahooart.com who can supply you with a canvas print of it.

Please Note:

Recording, photographing, and all post-production work involved with capturing live shows requires a great amount of our time and effort. We ask that you please refrain from re-hosting our recordings and instead link to the Two-Sails page itself when sharing. Thank you!